Fulfilling obligations.
The concept for Voivod: The Nuclear Warrior is cool as hell. My first impression on the demo was that this looks like what we’d get if the folks behind Metalocalypse made a video game tie-in to the show. But actually it gets even better, because rather than a tie-in to a fictional band this game is a tie-in to a real actual life band.
Voivod is named after its titular band: Voivod. Developer Chaosmonger Studio has promised a full collaboration with the band actively involved in every part of development from the visual design to playtesting and the audio tracks of course.
The full game isn’t out until 2027 but I managed to get some time playing the demo. I had a lot of fun. Underneath the admittedly beautiful aesthetic is a very recognizable Metroidvania. You’ll go from room to room destroying virtually everything in your path in order to fill out the map and acquire new weapons and abilities. Eventually you fight the big boss and get new stuff to fight further bosses and get further into the world.
At the center of the story, from the best I’ve been able to piece together, is that your character is stuck in this world trying to rebuild the fragments of their mind and escape.
Outside the usual running and gunning you have the ability to block projectiles with a slash of your weapon. From what I’ve seen in the demo it’s pretty easy to just blast through 99% of enemies, with occasional difficulty spikes once you get to the boss encounters where enemies actually kinda fight back.
Outside of that I only really died at surprise spike pits that seem to be impossible to jump out of. And that’s where the game’s lesser enjoyed mechanic comes out; corpse runs. Unfortunately if you want to avoid this you’ll have to play the game on easy mode. The only reason I’m not a fan of the corpse run is because it’s less about difficulty and more about it introducing tedium.
I’m looking forward to the full game release in 2027.
